The Boy On The Balustrade
by wynnie the pooh
Summary: When Booth arrives home after having his heart broken, a little boy is waiting for him, to help him grieve.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Bones, no matter how much I wish I did._

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The Boy On The Balustrade**

I'd never seen Daddy cry before. I'd seen him really, really angry, and sometimes he was angry at me. I'd seen him look at Dr Bones like Mr Fantastic looked at Mommy. I'd seen him chase bad guys, hit bad guys, and shoot at bad guys. But I'd _never _seen him cry.

But when he came home that night, after mom had dropped me off at the apartment, he didn't do anything but sit on the couch, drop his head in his hands, and cry.

I thought about calling out to him, but he was making loud noises, and his shoulders were rocking, and I was scared that he would hurt me if I disrupted him. When he was upset, Daddy often got violent.

So instead, I watched my Daddy cry. Daddy always told me that men never cry. Dr Bones had said that that's physiology and anthropomogically, men _should _cry. Daddy's shrink, Gordon Gordon, said that sometimes, no matter how much of a man you are, you have to be a boy. And boys are allowed to cry.

I'm a boy. That's why I cried when Lily, the smartest girl in my class, hit me. I didn't cry in front of her though. Even when you're a boy, and you're allowed to cry, you shouldn't cry when everyone can see you.

Maybe that was why Daddy was crying now. He couldn't cry in front of everyone, so he came home, and he cried. That would mean he wouldn't want me seeing. I'm a person, and boys don't cry in front of people. That's what girls do.

I crept upstairs, being careful to jump the step that always creaked, and grabbed the phone from daddy's room. I pressed speed dial one, and waited as it dialed. I didn't know who I was calling, but Daddy only ever had two people on speed dial, mommy, and Dr Bones.

"Booth?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Dr Bones?"

"Parker, is that you?"

"Yes. I was wondering what's wrong with my dad."

I waited for her answer, and she waited too. I wondered what she was waiting for.

"Dr Bones?"

"I'm sorry, Parker. I don't know."

"Well, Mommy said he was with you today, right? That means you should know."

"I'm sorry, Parker," she repeated. "I don't know."

"Well, Dr Bones," I said, starting to get angry. "He's really upset. I can tell, because I'm a boy too. But I don't want to talk to him because he gets angry at me when he's upse-"

"Parker," she said, trying to be calm, and trying to make me calm. I didn't want to be calm. I was worried about my dad. "Parker, he's just... he's just... he's just sad, okay?"

"That's not good enough, Dr Bones. How am I supposed to help him?"

"I don't know, Parker." I felt bad then, because I could hear that she was starting to cry too. But she was a girl. She was allowed to cry. Daddy wasn't allowed to cry.

"I'm sorry, Dr Bones," I said. "I shouldn't have called you."

"It's okay, Parker. Just... just make sure your dad is okay for me, alright?"

I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "Yes, Dr Bones." And I hung up.

I crept back out to the landing, resting my head against the balustrade. I watched Daddy through the bars, watched as he rocked backwards and forwards, moaning like he was in pain. He looked so sad, and Dr Bones had sounded sad too, and I wanted to make sure he was okay, like she had asked me to.

I walked slowly down the stairs, not missing the creaky step. He looked up at the sound.

Daddy's eyes were red and weepy, tears all over his face. His chin was furry, and he ran his hand through his hair, pushing it up into spikes between his fingers.

"Parker?" he asked.

"Yeah, dad?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Mom dropped me off."

"But, are you supposed to be here?"

"Yeah, remember, Mom's going on a holiday with Mr Fantastic and you said you'd look after me. You said you'd take me swimming in Dr Bones' pool."

Dad looked up at me, and I watched a drop of water push out of the corner of his eye and run down his cheek. "I did, did I?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, how about that. I'd forgotten."

I jumped down the last few steps and across the living room until I was standing in front of him. "What's wrong, Dad?"

He laid his hands on my face, and he was smiling, a little smile, kind of sad like. "Don't fall in love, okay, Parker? Don't fall in love."

"Who did you fall in love with, Dad?" He didn't answer, and I watched him as his eyes glazed over. He was thinking, like my teacher at school does when you ask her a question about her husband. "Was it Dr Bones?"

His eyes snapped back to mine. "How do you know that?"

"I was just talking to her."

"When?"

"Just before. On the phone. You were upset, so I called her to ask why."

"What did she tell you?" He shook my shoulders, and it hurt a little. My dad is strong. That's what makes him so good at catching the bad guys.

"She didn't tell me anything. She said she didn't know. She wasn't very helpful at all, but she was sad too. And if you fell in love, I'd want it to be with her. Just so I can use her pool more often."

Dad laughed. "What's with you and the pool, kiddo?"

"I like pools. I like water, and I like rubber ducks, and kickboards, and swimming, and-"

"Yeah, I get it," Dad laughed again. "But why Bones? Why not someone else?"

"I like Dr Bones pool. It's deep and blue."

"All pools are deep and blue."

"No, they're not. The one near school is green and I can hardly even get my tummy wet."

He laughed again. I don't really know why. It isn't very fun. It's actually kind of gross.

"Promise me something, Parker," he told me. All his giggles were gone. "If a shrink ever tells you to do something, don't do it. It never works out. Never."

And with that, he ended out conversation. I didn't really get it, but he didn't give me a chance to ask any more questions. Instead, he grabbed me under the arms, lifted me onto his hip, and carried me into the kitchen.

"Hey, do you want a cookie?"

"Yeah!"

And I pretended I'd forgotten. I didn't bring it up again. Daddy didn't want people to know he'd cried. And I didn't want to be the one to tell anyone.

But I knew, I was going to follow what he said. I wasn't going to fall in love, or do what a shrink told me to. If daddy did, and it made him cry, I would never do it. I didn't want to be a man, and have to cry.

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So this is just a little one-shot about the hundredth episode from Parker's point of view. I wrote it a while back, and I've posted it on other sites, just not this one!


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